Feds Establish Support Program for Victims of Criminal Aliens

Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary John F. Kelly ordered the director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to create a program to assist the victims of crimes committed by illegal aliens. The program creates a liaison and authorizes the disclosure of suspect immigration statuses and other pertinent data.

Secretary Kelly ordered the creation of the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) Office to help reverse policies of the previous administration that kept certain information about criminal aliens the victims of their crimes.

“Criminal aliens routinely victimize Americans and other legal residents,” Kelly wrote in a six-page memo obtained by Breitbart Texas. “Often, these victims are not provided adequate information about the offender, the offender’s immigration status, or any enforcement action taken by ICE against the offender.”

I am establishing the [VOICE] Office within the Office of the Director of ICE, which will create a programmatic liaison between ICE and the known victims of crimes committed by removable aliens,” the secretary explained. “The liaison will facilitate engagement with the victims and their families to ensure, to the extent permitted by law, that they are provided information about the offender, including the offender’s immigration status and custody status, and that their questions and concerns regarding immigration enforcement efforts are addressed.”

Kelly ordered the acting ICE director to immediately reallocate any and all resources that were previously allocated to advocate on behalf of illegal aliens to now be used to support VOICE. He ordered the immediate termination of any outreach or advocacy services to illegal aliens.

The memo supporting President Donald Trump’s “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States” Executive Order also included the authorization to hire an additional 10,000 ICE agents and enforcement officers to help in the massive task of rounding up criminal aliens before they can commit further crimes, Breitbart Texas reported. The 680 illegal aliens rounded up in the latest targeted enforcement operation carried out earlier this month represents a tiny fraction of the criminal aliens present in the U.S., according to DHS estimates.

A December study by the Center for Immigration Studies estimated there are 820,000 criminal illegal aliens in the U.S. not deported by the Obama Administration. Courts had convicted many of these aliens for crimes including murder, rape, drug offenses, other crimes, or who had final orders of removal from an immigration judge that was not enforced, Breitbart News reported.

Often, the mainstream media refuse to include information about the immigration status of a criminal alien–even after other outlets research and release said information. An example is a Mexican national illegally present in the United States that killed a Houston, Texas, pastor and his wife while he was engaged in street racing. All local media outlets referred to the criminal alien in vague and misleading terms like “Houston man,” or “a man,” Breitbart Texas reported. The omitted information continued to spread despite previous coverage by Breitbart Texas of the case revealing the Mexican national’s illegal immigrant status seven months earlier.

The order from Secretary Kelly to provide additional information and resources to victims of illegal alien crime is effective immediately.

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.